Blogs from Salamanca, Castile & León, Spain, Europe

Issy is keen to lie on some grass in a big park, so we head to the biggest nearby patch of green we can see on the map, which is the Parque de Los Jesuitas. It’s leafy and very pleasant, with a duck pond, some fountains and a section for dogs. We lie on the grass on our Sardinian tea towels and then go for a snack at the park’s cafeteria. Our waiter seems to have a real obsession with the menus, and if we leave them lying down on the table for more than a few seconds after we’ve finished looking at them he appears from nowhere to put them back in their stand next to the salt and pepper. We were probably fortunate he let us look at them in the first place. We ... read more

Issy says she’s run out of clean clothes. I ran out about a week ago, which I suspect is no news to Issy; the bed in our hotel room is very big and I’ve noticed she’s been making good use of the very far side of it. We could spend about 200 Euros getting the hotel to wash our clothes for us and send them back individually gift wrapped, but we decide instead to save some money and spend some quality time together in a nearby laundromat. I think the last time I went to a laundromat was about forty years ago when I first had to travel for work, and the company I was working for was too stingy to pay for the hotel to wash them. I’m probably lucky they agreed to pay for ... read more

Today we travel a couple of hundred kilometres west to the city of Salamanca. It seems that Spaniards aren’t into mornings, especially on Sundays; the breakfast room at the hotel still hasn’t opened when our taxi arrives at 8.30. We walk into the station to a deafening noise which sounds like several forest loads of birds all screeching at once. The man who checks us in tells us that the fire alarm here has been going for more than two hours now and it’s driving everyone crazy. We can’t see any flames or smoke, which is probably just as well, as I’m sure there wouldn’t be too much left of the station by now if there really was a fire. If anyone ever forgets to turn the iron off at home I think we need to ... read more

If Carlsburg made campsites they would shied a mile away from this one. Gabby is parked on the stinkiest campsite we have ever been on. The type of campsite where you start to smell under your armpits, you check the toilet and the drains on Gabby . You wonder if it is the town drains or the river nearby. There wasn't a lot of choice in this area and campsites were few and far between. Everyone it seems had ended up on the worse campsite for miles around. So how did Gabby end up there? We started out driving along some of the worse roads we have ventured on. We have passed fields full of pigs and cows. The landscape has changed considerably now that we have moved regions. We were heading for the motorhome parking ... read more

Leaving lovely Porto behind we encountered some brilliant scenery heading out of Portugal. We crossed a bridge 353m above the valley floor and also the Marao Tunnel which is 5.6km long on a road that was only extended a year ago. It was later we learned this to be the most dangerous road in Portugal due to some really steep sections that many trucks had incidents on. Salamanca is a very pretty city. Along the lines of Oxford or Cambridge, it is a University town. Hence the population is fairly young (or are we getting old?). The buildings and streets are incredibly ornate and grand with the buildings having been constructed using cut stone so a much more recent technique. This gives a very attractive style and appearance that has been kept consistent throughout the city ... read more

An easy day yesterday, strolling along the riverbank in the morning before a BBQ steak lunch and relaxing read in the hazy sunshine in the afternoon. Today, guide book out and into Salamanca Old Town, in search of the elusive little frog which sits on the Universidad facade!! We saw the Catedral Vieja and Catedral Nueva, the old, built in the 12th-13th century and the new......16th-18th centuries......so not that new!!!! In the Plaza Mayor, a rather grand cycle race was about to begin and it seemed as if every competitor had brought their mothers, fathers,cousins, grandmothers and great aunts twice removed, to cheer them on their way!!!!! A good Sunday morning outing obviously! We passed the Casa de las Conchas, a mansion adorned with scallop shells which are a symbol of the Order of Santiago-these shells ... read more

After waking at 7am to a thunderstorm, with heavy rain, we have had a long days travelling, over 280 miles, coming through mountain ranges and torrential rain, on occasions. I'm afraid to say we did break into song...."The rain in Spain......" and thank goodness it did!!!! The last 30 miles the temperature climbed from 19-29.5 degrees.....back to normal!!! We are at a site on the river Tormes, quiet and only 3k outside Salamanca, such a pleasant relief from the madness of the last site.....Graham likes the fact that it is called Don Quixote!! If I were a cyclist and, if we'd brought bikes, we could cycle along the riverside, into Salamanca-those who know me will realise what a silly comment that is, as I would probably end up IN the river!! Far safer to get the ... read more

In the last week in southern France, we have been feeling forty plus degree heat. With the sun holding a searing blowtorch to the landscape right up to sunset around 9:30 pm, and little or no shade in most of our campsites, we have been looking forward to a climb into the Pyrenees. Our route over the last few days has been from Pau in south-west France toward the city of Pamplona in north-west Spain. So as we began to ascend the relatively gentle western crossing of the Pyrenees, it was a welcome change to turn off the cabin air conditioning as ambient temperature dropped to a comfortable 25 or so degrees. Then I flicked the headlights on as fog bought visibility back to less than 50 meters. It’s good to take it slowly on these ... read more

Travel in Spain and looking to their history you have to visit churches. Some people don't like that but when you look at the churches and how old they are and standing you have to agree those builders knew what they were doing. We saw in Salamanca a Roman bridge build 68 A.D that is in daily use now. Salamanca is a very nice place. Build by the Romans around 63 A.D. it saw many armies coming through their city walls. O.A Hannibal and his army of soldiers and elephants on his way to conquer Rome. You find all this history back in the buildings and churches. It has a magnificent square that is surrounded by palaces and occupied we were told by Government. You can walk around the square in the shade because of covered ... read more

Woolly says - I had started to feel like the Andrex puppy but way cuter of course as we spent our last week saying our goodbyes, I learnt that handing Jo a tissue seemed the best solution to her constant flooding and the only way of keeping my fur dry from the avalanche of tears. I wasn’t quite that bad but he does have a point! Woolly says – with everything packed I waved a regretful goodbye to my home and shovelled Jo onto the transfer before handing her yet more paper to mop her up as she quietly snivelled her way out of Alanya and onto the start of our new life. Having checked us in I felt rather pleased that my arrangements had gone according to plan and that we had arrived at the ... read more

Spain's powerful world empire of the 16th and 17th centuries ultimately yielded command of the seas to England. Subsequent failure to embrace the mercantile and industrial revolutions caused the country to fall behind Britain, France, and Germany in ...more history